The Secretary-General established the High-Level Panel (HLP) in July 2012, right after the Rio+20 conference. It consisted of 27 persons and was co-chaired by the President of Liberia, Ms. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of Indonesia, Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and the Prime Minister of the UK, Mr. David Cameron, MP. The HLP was tasked to provide bold yet practical thinking for the post-2015 development agenda. Its report highlights the need for a single agenda that brings together social, economic and environmental issues, and for a universal agenda that is relevant to, and actionable by, all countries.

The report argues that it is right, smart and necessary to develop a post-2015 development agenda with the goals of eradicating extreme poverty in all its forms in the context of sustainable development by 2030, and having in place the building blocks of sustained prosperity for all. It calls for these gains to be irreversible.

To achieve this, the report argues for five fundamental transformations that, if implemented, would imply a sharp change from business as usual in every country and internationally. It is a call for all countries to:

Leave No One Behind. Ensure that no person – regardless of ethnicity, gender, geography, disability, race or income status – is denied basic economic opportunities and human rights.

Put Sustainable Development at the Core. Make a rapid shift to sustainable patterns of production and consumption and act now to slow the alarming pace of climate change and environmental degradation which pose unprecedented threats to humanity, most especially to people living in poverty.

Transform Economies for Jobs and Inclusive Growth. A profound economic transformation can end extreme poverty and improve livelihoods by harnessing innovation, technology and the potential of business. More diversified economies, with equal opportunities for all, can drive social inclusion, especially for young people, and foster respect for the environment.

Build Peace and Effective, Open and Accountable Institutions for All. Freedom from violence, conflict and oppression is essential to human existence and the foundation for building peaceful and prosperous societies. The Panel is calling for a fundamental shift – to recognize peace and good governance as core elements of wellbeing, not an optional extra.

Forge a New Global Partnership. A new spirit of solidarity, cooperation and mutual accountability must underpin the post-2015 agenda. This new partnership should be built on our shared humanity, and based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.

In conjunction with the five fundamental transformations, the HLP report calls for the post-2015 agenda to be embedded in national plans and strategies, as well as adopted at the global level. To monitor progress, the report calls for a “data revolution,” saying that data has enormous power if it is open and accessible, and arguing that data in a far more disaggregated form is necessary to ensure that no marginalized or excluded group gets left behind. Importantly, the HLP calls for partnerships of national and local government, business and civil society to help implement and monitor commitments.

Taken together, the HLP believes that the five fundamental transformative changes can remove the barriers that hold people back, end the inequality of opportunity that blights the lives of so many people on our planet and move forward in developing sustainable patterns of consumption and production that can allow billions of people to become prosperous. They can, at long last, bring together social, economic and environmental issues in a coherent, effective, and sustainable way. Above all, they can inspire a new generation to believe that a better world is within its reach, and act accordingly.

But their impact will depend on how these five areas are translated into specific priorities and actions. The vision would be incomplete unless focused on a set of goals and targets to show how these transformative changes could be expressed in precise and measurable terms. The report includes illustrative goals and targets (Annex I), with more detailed explanation of the evidence and issues in Annex II. In some places, especially on institutional issues, it acknowledges that quantitative indicators are weak, but argues that it is up to the research community to develop good proxies, rather than avoiding important topics. I hope the report will stimulate debate in The World Bank about the priorities for the whole international community in supporting sustainable development in the post-2015 world!

Comments

Fighting Old Age Poverty
One remarkable achievement of Developing Nation's demographics in the contemporary times has been ‘doubling the population of its senior citizens’ within a span of two decades as opposed to what nations like France and Germany achieved in more than 100 years.
Majority of India & Bangladesh working poor are highly vulnerable to old age poverty since they are not only excluded from access to formal pension provisions, but also unable to access any regulated insurance and retirement savings products at an affordable transaction cost. With an estimated 320 million senior citizens by 2050, India might be heading for a socioeconomic demographic catastrophe if the vast young population fail to create safe and secure pension savings in a regulated environment today. A staggering 64% of India’s 76.6 million low income workers have no financial savings. Coupled with an average life expectancy hovering over 18 years at 60, this audience may fall well under the poverty line by the time they hang, if at all, their boots. The problem is further accentuated by the fact that there is a huge latent need felt for retirement products and insurance within this target group, but there is little demand for it for want of awareness. On the supply side, the same has not been addressed by financial institutions for a slew of reasons like high transaction costs and lack of subsidies coupled with well designed low cost institutional arrangements for catering to lower amount but higher volume transactions.
Empirical evidence suggests that while there is limited existence for risk of life (life insurance), coverage of risk of longevity (pension) is mostly unheard of . With a pension requirement for 15 – 20 years after 60, workers will need to accumulate enough savings during their working life to support themselves and not depend on others when they are too old to work. However, their modest intermittent incomes, coupled with the absence of a low cost and easily accessible long term savings mechanism puts retirement planning out of reach of most of these workers. This presents a bleak outlook for the next generation of India's elderly and clearly suggests that old age poverty will continue to be an intractable public policy challenge. Despite whatever tall claims of financial inclusion, if products and services like pension and insurance fail to penetrate such cohort, the objective remains incomplete.

Five fundamental principles are well consolidated and let us hope this will help end poverty. Paris declaration and variation in donors' policy and requirement needs further harmonization and make recipient nation more responsible and accountable.

The main challenge, in my view, is the perverted value systems of society. Especially the increasing materialism. Unless a concerted, sustainable initiative to sensitize and inculcate true human value systems in all societies, all other efforts may not work. Whether this is possible is another issue altogether

These fundamental transformations are equally effective in moderate countries but not ensure to end poverty of least developed countries due to following reasons:
1. Every people, even the ruler are not secure in terms of human rights. Lack of minimum economic activities make them hopeless in future.
2. Reason first trapped them to explore the remaining fundamentals.